


not enough face

by dogmouth



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Agender Character, Best Friends, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 21:11:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2826236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogmouth/pseuds/dogmouth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Tanaka was uncharacteristically nervous but Nishinoya reacted instinctively. Like he always does, like they always knew he would."</p>
<p>this is for my haikyuu!! winter holiday exchange!! my first ever one.... and i had skirt whose request was: agender tanaka who likes to test out makeup but they only have so much face, so nishi ends up being a lipstick and eyeliner test subject a lot. </p>
<p>thank you for letting me be apart of this!!</p>
            </blockquote>





	not enough face

**Author's Note:**

  * For [skirt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/skirt/gifts).



> i haven't written a fandom fic in a really long time, and this was my first haikyuu fic, so i'm sorry if it's too short and also really bad

The first time they remember seeing make-up was on a large, square advertisement situated before the food court. It had a woman wearing a vivid red, smoky black eyes staring straight ahead, and the first thought they had was damn do you know how much tougher I’d look with that on.  


_  


  
Tanaka heard a sigh over the phone, but they knew the sound well enough to know that it wouldn’t be a “no”. They resisted the urge to do a fist pump in the middle of the beauty product store, especially since there was a middle aged woman standing next to them who was definitely giving a side-eye.

“You’re lucky I don’t want to finish this homework,” Nishinoya grumbled over the phone, the sounds of muffled rustling in the background. “Don’t get me a shitty color again though. You know darks are your thing.”

Tanaka huffed and rolled the lipsticks in their hand, the sound pleasant. “I have excellent taste, asshole. Just meet me at my place in thirty minutes and you’ll be begging to borrow these.”

_  


  
Forty-five minutes later Tanaka knew they were right. They mostly were always right, anyway. Sitting crossed-legged on the floor, Tanaka tilted his make-up mirror and moved the soft brush across their cheek, the bronze creating a deep shade.

Beside them, also crossed-legged, Nishinoya let out a small gasp and leaned forward, hands gripping his ankles. “That looks so good; you’ve been getting so good. Where the hell did you learn that?”

Tanaka suppressed a smirk but failed, too proud of their work to really put forth effort. “Youtube will save your life, I’m telling you. They’ve got tutorials and all kinds of makeup shit. Do you see this shading?” For emphasis, they raised a finger dramatically to their eye shadow.

Nishinoya leaned in closer, squinting even, to get a better look at what his best friend had done. The dark purple blended with the black and dark grays, reminding Nishinoya of the dark night sky when practice went too late. Once again, he let out a gasp of encouragement. He was grinning.  
  
“That’s so impressive, Tanaka! I can’t believe you had the patience enough to even do all that!” There’s a soft oof that escapes Nishinoya’s lips as Tanaka gives him a hard elbow, sending him toppling backwards. Tanaka turns back to the little round mirror, looking at their own self-righteous expression, pulling out a mascara brush and applying it to their eyelashes.

“Shit, you wish you had the ability to look this good,” they laugh as Nishinoya sits upright again. As he watches Tanaka move to the other eye, they can see through the mirrors reflection the growing look of excitement that comes to Nishinoya’s face when the two of them have these make-up sessions.

When Tanaka experiments- because no matter how much they brag, this is something new and strange and hard to learn- Nishinoya, eventually, gets as excited about this as they do.

When the both of them had had the first conversation about it all, the “Listen, shithead, I’m they or them now- not he- got it?” nervous yet sure tone, the blink and sudden laugh “Why are you yelling? Everyone hears you all the time, I got it, unless you want Kiyoko-san to hear you, too”, this had become just another routine while the two of them were together.

The I’ve-got-your-back-you’ve-got-mine best friend mentality was unspoken between them, never needing to be addressed aloud. The chemistry on the court, the trust during practice, the jokes and sometimes-overzealous encouragement; Tanaka was uncharacteristically nervous but Nishinoya reacted instinctively. Like he always does, like they always knew he would.

As Tanaka finished, Nishinoya frowned impatiently. “When is it going to be my turn? You look good. I want to look cool too.”

Grinning, Tanaka reached across the mirror and knocked over some containers and pushed some palettes that they had no intention of fixing. “You won’t see this one coming, but, shit, you are going to look incredible,” Tanaka grins, flashing Nishinoya the two color lipsticks in their hand. With a blink, Nishinoya looks stunned for a moment before matching their grin.

“Whatever the fuck you’re doing with those colors, I’m game!” The two of them high five, scrambling over one another until Tanaka has the perfect light source. Nishinoya’s lips perk almost comically, too eager, and Tanaka gets to work.

_  


  
The way Nishinoya’s eyes sparkle is the same look he gets during a game, Tanaka thinks. He checks himself out in the mirror at different angles, the glitter on his lips catching the light spectacularly.

Tanaka feels proud with their new experiment; the turquoise on his upper lip is softened with the pastel purple on Nishinoya’s bottom lip. It’s usually the lipstick that gets Tanaka the most creative; on their own lips is a shade of deep red, gradient with a rich purple. But when they saw the two colors, now on Nishinoya, on display at the beauty store, they needed to know what the combo looked like together immediately.

“Where the hell did you even get this idea?” Nishinoya questions, words obscured due to the fact that his lips were currently puckered as he gazed into the mirror.

Tanaka crossed their arms and raised their nose a bit, like a proud bird puffing up. “Thought of this own all on my own.”

Reaching forward, Nishinoya gripped Tanaka’s shoulders and gave a few shakes. “You gotta do something else! Do the eyeliner like last time, the really pointy one! I looked so tough and beautiful!”

In a rush, Tanaka grabbed Nishinoya’s elbows and pulled him up, wrapping their arm around him and clenching their fist. “We’re going to be the toughest, most fierce players on the court. We’re going to intimidate our opponents even more than we already do!” Nishinoya looked up at them and grinned, messily putting one foot on the table and spewing make-up everywhere in the process.

“The two of us with these incredible looks; all the under classmen will be calling us senpai’s forever until we die!”  


_  


  
The most recent time they had seen make-up was when they felt a shoulder bump into their elbow, Nishinoya’s delighted face looking up at Tanaka holding colored eyeliner and saying damn do you know how cool we’d both look in this, when can we practice next? 

**Author's Note:**

> also here is the lipstick inspiration i used for nishinoya: http://claphne.tumblr.com/post/104609980734/glitter-is-always-neat


End file.
